research methods vocabulary

internal validity

the extent to which a study measures what it sets out to measure

reliability

the extent to which a study is consistent and produces consistent findings

ecological validity

the extent to which the findings of a study can be generalised to real life behaviour

target population

the group of people the psychologist wants to study and apply the findings to

sample

a subject of people from the target population who are selected to take part in the research

representative

a sample is representative if it has the same proportionate characteristics of the target population

population validity

the extent to which the results can be generalised to the target population

individual differences

differences between people

extraneous variables

other variables that may influences the results

dependant variable

the variable you measure

independant variable

the variable you change/manipulate

independent measures

a participant that only takes part in one condition

repeated measures

a participants that takes part in both/all conditions

laboratory experiment

a controlled experiment

operationalise

make variables measurable

the four sampling techniques

opportunity, random, snowball, volunteer/self-selecting sample

demand characteristics

cues in the experiment that communicates to the participants what is expected of them, leading them to subconsciously change their behaviour

confounding variables

when an extraneous variable is not controlled

control condition

where no manipulation is made